Transport authorities launched a full-fledged investigation Sunday into the derailment of a bullet train on the Akita Shinkansen Line in Daisen, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday afternoon.
It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.
SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover) In the vast cultural landscape, Japan fascinates the mainstream with manga and anime, the martial arts, Zen and kimono. Of course, ...
Kenta Maeda shook off worries about his form with five shutout innings as Japan beat China 5-2 in first-round Pool A of the World Baseball Classic on Sunday at Fukuoka Dome. Japan improved to 2-0 following a tough win over Brazil in Saturday evening’s ...
Italy faces political paralysis as near-complete results in crucial national elections showed no clear front-runner and raised the possibility of a hung parliament.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a case challenging a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was enacted to prevent persistent discrimination against blacks and other minorities at the polls. The Voting Rights Act effectively keeps ...
Conservative candidate Nicos Anastasiades won Cyprus’ presidency Sunday by one of the widest margins in 30 years, promising to do what it takes to quickly secure a financial rescue package from international creditors and prevent the country from sliding into economic oblivion. Anastasiades, 66, ...
Raul Castro announced Sunday that he will step down as Cuba’s president in 2018 following a final five-year term, for the first time putting a date on the end of the Castro era. He tapped rising star Miguel Diaz-Canel as his top lieutenant and ...
A campaign of insinuation and insult has targeted Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and in a country where all power flows from the top downward, his boss, President Vladimir Putin, has done nothing all winter to stop it. Medvedev’s failings get an airing in the ...
John McCain was excited. It was late January, and the following day, he and a group of bipartisan senators were set to announce their framework for comprehensive immigration reform. He picked up the phone and called an old friend in Arizona. “We got it ...
In the annals of political redemption stories, it is hard to top the one that Republican Former Gov. Mark Sanford is attempting to write in South Carolina, the state he once headed. After a spectacular 2009 scandal that destroyed his marriage, spawned impeachment proceedings ...
In an extraordinary public statement only days before Kenya’s high-tension national election, the chief justice Wednesday said he had received a letter warning of dire consequences if the judiciary doesn’t allow a top candidate indicted by the International Criminal Court to run. Chief Justice ...
When Silvio Berlusconi put his foot in his mouth yet again last week, claiming that kickbacks are a normal part of doing business abroad, Italy waited for a crushing rebuke from his main opponent in this month’s election. But Pier Luigi Bersani is not ...
How much weight does an endorsement from a lame-duck pope carry in the upcoming election? No, not that election — the one to pick the next leader of the Catholic Church. Another key ballot is looming even closer, when Italians go to the polls ...
President Barack Obama is looking for a new candidate to lead U.S. and allied forces in Europe after his first choice, Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, bowed out Tuesday and announced his intention to retire for what he called personal reasons. The move further ...
Lawmakers in Colorado, where a gunman burst into a theater last year for a deadly shooting, narrowly passed a handful of gun-control bills, signaling a political shift under pressure from the White House. “Enough is enough. I’m sick and tired of bloodshed,” said Rep. ...
